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Comedy and the NDP leadership race
February 1, 2012 - 1:12pm
I propose a thread to post up anything funny or was-supposed-to-be-funny for the NDP leadership race - parodies, jokes, editorial cartoons, etc.
First up is This Hour Has 22 Minutes, which got all the candidates together for an American-style debate:
http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Shows/22_Minutes/Clips/1287245959/ID=2192010387
Mulcair: "I am not anti-immigrant. My grandfather was born in Mexico, you commie!"
Nash: "Oh come on, Mulcair. Your policies are just crazy as your crazy beard."
Singh: "This is ridiculous. Some of the people on this stage aren't even American!
Ashton: "There are three things this country needs. Freedom, eagles and freedom."
Dewar: "And if elected I will work with Newt Gingrich to build a moon base."
Cullen: "We need to stop worrying about the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and start worrying about the border between Canada and Mexico!"
Saganash: "There are three agencies of government that will be gone when I get there: Commerce, education, um, what the f*** was the other one?"
I liked Rick's Rant last night. He suggested that the race is anything but engaging.
http://www.rickmercer.com/Rick-s-Rant/Blog/February-2012/The-Race-to-Dis...
Yup I saw that too. And he's got a point there. I guess everyone is being a little *too* mindful of the possibility that something they say today could be used tomorrow by Conservative attack dogs.
Well i think the "battling" is finally starting as you saw in the last debate some candidates came out swinging.
But in the end i think New Democrats tend to all be in the same boat on most issues with maybe differences on how to get there or in the details. But i do not agree one bit that we need to "american style" attack each other... we see how rediculous ther americans are. I think the satire debate was hilarious and shows they all have a great sense of humour but lets not beat up each other. In the end everyone is going to have to work together right.
I think one of the reasons why the race is so polite and uncontroversial are the circumstances under which it is happening. Usually parties pick leaders after they have suffered a major defeat and the leader has stepped down or after an incumbent was forced out as a result of being unpopular etc... so inevitably the leadership contest that follows is all about "what do we do differently?". In this case, the vacancy was created by a tragic death and when everyone felt good about what the party was doing.
That may be a contributing factor, Stockholm. Yet, given how mediocre the party's performance is in the House these days we don't need a boring leadership race as well.
In retrospect, Parliament should have been prorogued for the entire duration of the leadership race. That would have solved the problem of absence from the House of some key players, as well as sparing us the Turmel show. And some more legislation dismantling Canada.
Oh sorry, this thread was supposed to be for jokes? My bad.
Part of the problem is there is a bit of a "church of the left" attitude/culture within the NDP and the current NDP leadership race. There is a liturgy and consensus on many issues, some minor variation in interpretation (exegesis) on others, and several books of the (policy) bible that don't get discussed at all.
The problem for the NDP "church of the left" is that non-believers care a lot (more) about the policy books the NDP doesn't discuss: defence, fiscal balance, tax "relief," social conservative mores, etc. Kind of like different Christian churches emphasize different books of the bible.
So the party, and the candidates, need to pick some of those untouched/undiscussed issues and talk about how they would engage them in/as government. Then we should begin to see some more divergence of opinion between the candidates and also some interest points of discussion for moving the party forward and getting it to having the most well-rounded platform.
This is the kind of (political) maturity the NDP needs to have to demonstrate that it is ready and able to take on the reins of government. The other part, on the policy side, is the ability to set priorities and so far only a few candidates have demonstrated this IMO.
It used to be funny, but it doesn't even have that quality to it anymore, being the stuff of dry heaves when nothing remains.
Quite so, Slumberjack. None of the wit remains of the early years. Now it's Air Farce by another name. For once I found Topp's pained demeanor appropriate.
Yeah but was it funny? I mean this is supposed to be a comedy central type thread about the NDP isn't it?
At the end of the day, you may find, that the joke was on you all the time...
I think it would be funny if one of the candidates made a satirical negative ad. Something like the ones the GOP are running in the states. You could make a funny one about Mulcair, "Oooh he likes his Che Guevara beret, OOOOhh he is a seperatist, OOOOh he is moving the party to the centre." Put all this creepy music in it and have blood running down the screen. It might help later on when the Tories do the real thing.
That would be funny.
Man, it's like being rickrolled. The thread title says "Comedy and the NDP leadership race" so I think I'm going to see a collection of comedy clips about the NDP leadership race - and the majority of the posts in it turn out to be a clone of the punditry already happening in the neverending NDP leadership race threads. ;)
Here's the video of that Rick's Rant posted above.
This video is from 22 Minutes - it's pretty funny. Getting to know the candidates - it's from a while back.
This is another one from the Rick Mercer Report that was pretty funny - it was before Niki Ashton entered the race:
The 7 billionth person to enter the NDP Leadership Race
"As these billions of aspiring men - and Peggy Nash - plus thousands of French tutors - cause an unprecedented strain on our natural resources..."
Ok, Michelle, you want humour? I found some. Here's Nycole Turmel last week, calling upon Dippers to reproduce like crazy (her code word is "families") as a strategic blow against Harper:
I hope they don't fight for families right in the chamber itself. Decorum, please.
Source.
Funny, eh Michelle?
Have you heard the joke yet about the junkies promising comic relief?
Not as funny as this, Unionist.
Damn you, Michelle!
OMG, rickrolled again! Michelle, you'll pay for this!
I love it.
I don't see any problems with the leadership race, other than the fact that Peter Julian should have run and perhaps a few others.
As for the media and their narrative that this race is "boring", well they don't understand the culture of the party, that we're not into toxic Liberal infighting. And if the candidates were sniping at one another, the media would then create a narrative about a "bitterly divided" NDP with "several factions" fighting each other.
The media and especially their narratives have no credibility. They've always done this to the CCF/NDP.
Stock that was very insightful - really - the MSM is baffled by the pleasantness of it all but your point - well this race didn't start from a negative place but a very sad place and one wish we hoped would con't in the same direction shows they should really think about this race differently. I think every candidate is mindful of Jack's deeds and words - hopeful, optimistic, loving and we will change the world - he was the happy warrier and I liked that - and tough as nails!
I heard today that Brian Topp's Cree is simply attrocious.
Budda bump bump tish.
Especially Mercer. Why would he shit on the NDP about the leadership race turning off voters? He probably complains about the GOP being too crazy! What a whiner.
Also, from back in September:
http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Shows/22_Minutes/Clips/1287245959/ID=2129429675
Mark Critch gets to the bottom of the rumours of the Liberal/NDP merger, with Liberal Party Interim Leader Bob Rae, former NDP Leader Ed Broadbent, MPs Robert Chisholm, Pat Martin and Carolyn Bennett, and NDP leadership candidate Brian Topp.
Today in the Toronto Star:
Wow, that's just mean, SJ!
A pretty mean collage?...thank you for saying so.